5 ms·

Segment is giving away free Watsi gift cards

82 points by chaseadam17 12y ago

frsandstone 12y ago
What do you think it costs Segment to do this? $20,000?
- michaelmior 12y ago
  I would hope in a scenario like this, they're not getting them at a discount.
  - chaseadam17 12y ago
    Nope, they donated the full amount of the gift cards and 100% of the donation will directly fund healthcare.
    - BHSPitMonkey 12y ago
      Unless some people who claimed gift cards never use them?
      - oms1005 12y ago
        Gift cards expire after 90 days, at which point the money on a gift card goes to our general fund for patients, so worst-case scenario, someone claims one of these and doesn't use it, the money will still go to patients' healthcare.
        michaelmior 12y ago
        That is a fantastic way to handle this situation. I hadn't thought about this before, but it's great to know that the money will never go to waste!
gracegarey 12y ago
We want to thank the team at Segment for making such a generous donation to Watsi patients. Segment not only buys Watsi gift cards for each of their new employees, but they donate their product (which we love) to Watsi so we can fund healthcare for more patients using the best tools available. They are amazing :)
cm2012 12y ago
Wow - can't believe I got in early enough to get one. Awesome. Does anyone know what the difference is between segment.io and Tealium, for instance? EDIT: It went to my spam box - :( :(. Not a problem for me but its a shame if Watsi is being labeled as spam by outlook.
robbiet480 12y ago
Chase this is super awesome! However, I hit a small snag. I wanted to go above the $20 and donate a total of $50 but Watsi won't let me because my gift card only has $20. I tried to sign up but couldn't find the button and eventually had to Google to find it. Maybe add a sign up button next to sign in, or allow me to donate $50 by adding a card now (when I hit donate). Bilateral club foot is something that I struggled with as a child, I am extremely happy that I will help someone else to have the corrective surgery and lead a normal life. Thanks for that opportunity. Thanks to you, Chase, for Watsi and thanks to Segment for making my life as a developer much easier by taking the pain out of implementing analytics in my software. Much love to both of you! EDIT: Even after signing up and adding my credit card, I still can't donate more than $20 until I spend my gift card. Guess I'm making two donations. EDIT2: Let me give Watsi more than a $6 tip! :)
- qeorge 12y ago
  +1 - I ran into the same issue. FWIW, I am logged in and you have my payment issue on file, but I was also not able to increase the donation amount. No big deal, and obviously I was able to just make another donation, but I wanted to mention it in case its an easy fix. Thanks to all of you. You make me believe in people.
- chaseadam17 12y ago
  This is great feedback. We had to cut scope to get gift cards out in time for the holidays, but we're going to enable people to add value to their gift cards in the future. For now, we really appreciate the double donation :) We're also working to reintroduce sign up. Re: tips, there's an "other" field where you can add any amount, and we're going to keep A/B testing the entire tip flow to make sure it's as simple as possible. Thanks again. We have lots of work to do!
erjiang 12y ago
It's neat that I didn't have to create an account to use the gift card, but I fat-fingered my email address when using it. I don't think I'll get an email confirming my donation (typed ".co.m" instead of ".com") because of this. Not sure how I can self-service fix this since I never created an account.
- neodude 12y ago
  No worries - I'll fix that for you right now! Look for an email in your inbox shortly.
simplemts 12y ago
Very cool. Thanks for posting this.
mrcwinn 12y ago
This is really great! You can also head over to the Pay It Forward Bundle https://payitforwardbundle.com https://payitforwardbundle.com 100% of the donations go to Watsi. We've nearly hit $100k in just about a week. Every bit helps!
- canvia 12y ago
  I would buy this bundle if there were a better payment option. I do not trust a random credit card info box that pops up from a site that hasn't existed for very long. Bitcoin or Paypal would remove the need for me to trust you.
  - chaseadam17 12y ago
    The payment is processed by Stripe [1], a PCI Service Provider Level 1. [1] https://stripe.com/checkout https://stripe.com/checkout
  - mrcwinn 12y ago
    Hope you reconsider and support Watsi. All payments are processed securely by Stripe. Both the Pay It Forward Bundle site and Stripe are on HTTPS, and Stripe is fully PCI compliant. Good of you to be on the lookout, though!
    - canvia 12y ago
      I already have a monthly Watsi subscription :) I saw that it was Stripe, but I am not comfortable using a direct payment entry interface like that when the website hosting it has no reputation or history.
Globz 12y ago
This is great, I just used the gift card and helped someone in less than 5 minutes, awesome website and very cool donation from Segment, much respect.
gracegarey 12y ago
Wow, thank you! It took less than 90 minutes for all 1,000 of Segment's gift cards to be claimed. You can still buy a gift card here: https://watsi.org/gift-cards https://watsi.org/gift-cards. They're a holiday gift that's perfect for everyone and 100% of every gift card funds life-changing healthcare.
aswerty 12y ago
I'm glad this came up on HN. I got an email telling me to claim my gift card and thought it was some sort of voucher for an online store. Just realised it is used to make a free donation on Watsi. I have since sent it on to a family member.
dome82 12y ago
Thank you Watsi for what you are doing and thank you Segment for this great donation!
mikexstudios 12y ago
I have a $20 Watsi gift card (I received a while back) that I would like to give to someone who is interested in signing up for Watsi. If you're interested, please email me (see my profile) with your email address. Edit: Card has been claimed. Thanks!
neil_s 12y ago
Missed it :( Anyone feeling Christmas-sy and want to let me donate their gift card on Watsi? :D

82 points by chaseadam17 12y ago

frsandstone 12y ago

What do you think it costs Segment to do this? $20,000?

michaelmior 12y ago
I would hope in a scenario like this, they're not getting them at a discount.
- chaseadam17 12y ago
  Nope, they donated the full amount of the gift cards and 100% of the donation will directly fund healthcare.
  - BHSPitMonkey 12y ago
    Unless some people who claimed gift cards never use them?
    - oms1005 12y ago
      Gift cards expire after 90 days, at which point the money on a gift card goes to our general fund for patients, so worst-case scenario, someone claims one of these and doesn't use it, the money will still go to patients' healthcare.
      - michaelmior 12y ago
        That is a fantastic way to handle this situation. I hadn't thought about this before, but it's great to know that the money will never go to waste!

gracegarey 12y ago

We want to thank the team at Segment for making such a generous donation to Watsi patients. Segment not only buys Watsi gift cards for each of their new employees, but they donate their product (which we love) to Watsi so we can fund healthcare for more patients using the best tools available. They are amazing :)

cm2012 12y ago

Wow - can't believe I got in early enough to get one. Awesome. Does anyone know what the difference is between segment.io and Tealium, for instance? EDIT: It went to my spam box - :( :(. Not a problem for me but its a shame if Watsi is being labeled as spam by outlook.

robbiet480 12y ago

Chase this is super awesome! However, I hit a small snag. I wanted to go above the $20 and donate a total of $50 but Watsi won't let me because my gift card only has $20. I tried to sign up but couldn't find the button and eventually had to Google to find it. Maybe add a sign up button next to sign in, or allow me to donate $50 by adding a card now (when I hit donate). Bilateral club foot is something that I struggled with as a child, I am extremely happy that I will help someone else to have the corrective surgery and lead a normal life. Thanks for that opportunity. Thanks to you, Chase, for Watsi and thanks to Segment for making my life as a developer much easier by taking the pain out of implementing analytics in my software. Much love to both of you! EDIT: Even after signing up and adding my credit card, I still can't donate more than $20 until I spend my gift card. Guess I'm making two donations. EDIT2: Let me give Watsi more than a $6 tip! :)

qeorge 12y ago
+1 - I ran into the same issue. FWIW, I am logged in and you have my payment issue on file, but I was also not able to increase the donation amount. No big deal, and obviously I was able to just make another donation, but I wanted to mention it in case its an easy fix. Thanks to all of you. You make me believe in people.
chaseadam17 12y ago
This is great feedback. We had to cut scope to get gift cards out in time for the holidays, but we're going to enable people to add value to their gift cards in the future. For now, we really appreciate the double donation :) We're also working to reintroduce sign up. Re: tips, there's an "other" field where you can add any amount, and we're going to keep A/B testing the entire tip flow to make sure it's as simple as possible. Thanks again. We have lots of work to do!

erjiang 12y ago

It's neat that I didn't have to create an account to use the gift card, but I fat-fingered my email address when using it. I don't think I'll get an email confirming my donation (typed ".co.m" instead of ".com") because of this. Not sure how I can self-service fix this since I never created an account.

neodude 12y ago
No worries - I'll fix that for you right now! Look for an email in your inbox shortly.

simplemts 12y ago

Very cool. Thanks for posting this.

mrcwinn 12y ago

This is really great! You can also head over to the Pay It Forward Bundle https://payitforwardbundle.com https://payitforwardbundle.com 100% of the donations go to Watsi. We've nearly hit $100k in just about a week. Every bit helps!

canvia 12y ago
I would buy this bundle if there were a better payment option. I do not trust a random credit card info box that pops up from a site that hasn't existed for very long. Bitcoin or Paypal would remove the need for me to trust you.
- chaseadam17 12y ago
  The payment is processed by Stripe [1], a PCI Service Provider Level 1. [1] https://stripe.com/checkout https://stripe.com/checkout
- mrcwinn 12y ago
  Hope you reconsider and support Watsi. All payments are processed securely by Stripe. Both the Pay It Forward Bundle site and Stripe are on HTTPS, and Stripe is fully PCI compliant. Good of you to be on the lookout, though!
  - canvia 12y ago
    I already have a monthly Watsi subscription :) I saw that it was Stripe, but I am not comfortable using a direct payment entry interface like that when the website hosting it has no reputation or history.

Globz 12y ago

This is great, I just used the gift card and helped someone in less than 5 minutes, awesome website and very cool donation from Segment, much respect.

gracegarey 12y ago

Wow, thank you! It took less than 90 minutes for all 1,000 of Segment's gift cards to be claimed. You can still buy a gift card here: https://watsi.org/gift-cards https://watsi.org/gift-cards. They're a holiday gift that's perfect for everyone and 100% of every gift card funds life-changing healthcare.

aswerty 12y ago

I'm glad this came up on HN. I got an email telling me to claim my gift card and thought it was some sort of voucher for an online store. Just realised it is used to make a free donation on Watsi. I have since sent it on to a family member.

dome82 12y ago

Thank you Watsi for what you are doing and thank you Segment for this great donation!

mikexstudios 12y ago

I have a $20 Watsi gift card (I received a while back) that I would like to give to someone who is interested in signing up for Watsi. If you're interested, please email me (see my profile) with your email address. Edit: Card has been claimed. Thanks!

neil_s 12y ago

Missed it :( Anyone feeling Christmas-sy and want to let me donate their gift card on Watsi? :D